Dark games
by lust for the darkness
Summary: "I am the puppet master" The voice called "And you two are going to play a little game with me." When Raito and L are kidnapped, they are confronted by a strange man. Will they escape, or even survive, his deadly game? disclaimer-I dont own death note
1. Prologue

A/N: Hello, fans of death note. I have decided to post one chapter of a few story ideas I have. The most popular one I will finish, the others will be discontinued until I finish the best one.

Another note: Rating may go up, I'm not sure were I'm going to go with this yet, but I have high hopes!

Disclaimer: I don't own death note.

_**October 3**__**rd**__** 2004**_

The brunette awoke, head foggy. Dazed, chestnut eyes surveyed the small, dark room. It was lit by a single, dim bulb; the walls were painted with flaky, pale cream paint; the only furniture was a small bed Raito was lying on, like the ones in prison cells, and there was a cast iron door opposite the bed. After a few minutes of letting his head clear, Raito started to think about his situation.

He was in a cell.

Was this one of Ryuzakis tricks? A test too see if he was Kira? He had been put in a situation like this before. No, last time he saw the detective, he was handcuffed to his wrist, there was no way he would do something like this. So what was going on?

Getting up, the young male noticed that he wasn't restrained in any way. This was odd, to put someone in a cell and not use restraints. It would make it easier for them to escape. Walking forward a few steps, Raito opened the door. That was another strange thing, that the door could be opened. It was a bit pointless to put someone in a cell, for them to be able to escape with ease, unless…

Raito stepped outside into a dull, grey hallway, lined with doors just like the one he just opened. "This hallway goes on forever" He thought, before something, or _someone _grabbed his attention. This confused looking someone was the last person he expected to see.

* * *

The raven haired man sat up, brushing some of his bangs from his eyes. He sighed, trying to remember what happened. Still slightly fuzzy in his mind, he remembered it was evening. Aizawa had left that day, so they were working extra hard that day, but this being the kira suspects 3rd all-nighter in a row, he wanted to go to bed. Raito fell to sleep instantly, as Ryuzaki went to his own bed and started working on his laptop. After a few hours of work he heard a sound. This couldn't have been the task force, everyone but Watari was a sleep, and Watari never disturbed him after Raito had gone to sleep. He decided to ignore the nose, but listen out in case of more. A couple of minutes later, Ryuzaki got a call on his cell phone.

"Yes, Watari, what is it?"

"Is everything okay? All the cameras are down, every single one."

"That's a little odd." Ryuzaki thought. He was about to reply when all of a sudden he heard a crash come from near the window. This made him jump; he dropped his phone on the ground. Before he had time to react he felt something cover his mouth as a hand blocked his vision. As he tried to struggle he began to feel faint. The thing that covered his mouth was a drugged rag. The last thing he heard before he blacked out was Wataris concerned voice, on the other end of the phone, before everything went quiet.

* * *

Raito walked up to the young detective, a few doors down.

"What's going on?" He asked, a confused expression on his face.

"I have no idea but…" He replied "It seems like we've been kidnapped.

"What! By Who?"

"I'm not sure."

"We have to find a way out of here."

"My thoughts exactly."

"Then, which way?"

The long corridor spread out far, seeming endless. It was impossible to figure out whether to go left or right, especially since both ways looked exactly the same.

"We could split up." Ryuzaki suggested.

"Ryuzaki, I think it would be better if we stick together. It would be easier to defend ourselves if we are in a group."

"Two is hardly a group, but, I suppose your right." Ryuzaki reluctantly replied as he brought his thumb up to his mouth.

The two geniuses decided to go left, as a completely random decision. They both decided that there was no way they would be able to figure out which was the right way. After about ten minutes of walking down the dull hallway, they found a wall, with a door. This door was different from all the others. It was smaller than the others, and made out of posh looking wood; it seemed much more delicate. Raito grabbed the sleek, shiny metal handle and twisted it, revealing that the door was in fact, unlocked. Raito slowly opened the door, unveiling what looked like a gigantic food hall.

"What … is this?" Raito questioned.

"What is going on?" Ryuzaki thought "Who was that person who brought us here? What was the purpose? Could someone have found out my identity and location?"

As the two young men walked in the room, the door slammed shut behind them.

"No use, it's locked." Raito announced after pulling at the door handle.

"Well, well, it looks like our new arrivals are here." A voice called out from now where.

"Who are you?" Called Ryuzaki.

"I am the puppet master!" The voice called, followed by a man dressed in black, much like Watari, out of a door on the other side of the room "And you two are going to play a little game with me."

"What do you mean game? Where are we?" Shouted Raito, it was more a demand than a question.

"Calm down Raito. You and L will get answers soon enough." The puppet master spoke, voice calm. With that, he left. After a few minutes of silence, Raito was first to sighed, then spoke out..

"So, what do we do now?"


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: Hello everyone. Here is the next chapter, please review if you want me to continue. Just to warn you, some of this was done at half two in the morning, so it might not be that good, but, enjoy anyway.

The two geniuses looked at each over for a second, before the elder male noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He walled up to the closest of the many tables around the room and picked up the envelope, using his hand to cover his true name on the front.

"Dear Raito and L." Read Raito "What do you think this is?"

"We should open it and find out."

"Right."

L opened the envelope, folding said envelope in half to cover the names; he placed it in his pocket.

'Dear Raito and L'

At least his name wasn't on the inside.

'You are the newest members of my little game. Escape is futile, and just wastes energy. You need all the energy and brain power you have to survive. Since its early any you have only just arrived, you may take the day off. Please go to your rooms and stay there, I have guards patrolling the building and the only way out of this room is the way you came. There will be more instructions in your room.

The Puppet Master.'

"So, what should we do?" Raito asked.

"We should go back to our room." L responded, glancing up at a security camera.

"But,.. okay, fine."

Raito also saw the camera and knew L had a plan.

Ten minutes later both boys were in Raitos room. L didn't want Raito in his room, just in case there were more envelopes with his name on. Who was the puppet master? How did he find out who L was? What was this game?

Raito didn't close the door properly, in case it locked them in. L sat on the bed and pulled out a small phone, hidden inside the ankle of his jeans.

"I'm going to call Watari. A call is enough for him to trace out location."

"Okay, I'll keep watch at the door."

L dialled the number in the phone and it started ringing.

"Hello? Ryuzaki, is that you?"

"Yes, It's me." L responded, keeping his voice down.

"Where are you? Are you okay? Is Raito with you?"

"Raito is here, and we are both fine. We seem to be in a large building of some sort. Are you tracing this call?"

"Yes, But, it says you are out in the middle of the ocean."

"Somebody's coming." Raito whispered

L quickly shut the phone and got up from the bed. He had to be prepared to hide, he was meant to be in his own room. Lucky for him, the guard just walked past.

"Are the guards armed?"

"Yes, this one had a pistol and a pocket knife with him. Did Watari find out our location?"

"Apparently, we are in the middle of the ocean."

"North pacific, I'm presuming."

"Most likely. I am going to go to my own room now, just in case another guard comes."

Then L left, cell phone hidden down his sleeve.

About a minute after Ryuzaki left, the door to Raitos cell slammed shut. Sighing, he picked up the small brown envelope he just realised was on the floor. It read:

'Dear Raito,  
This is how the game works. Everyday, you shall have to complete a challenge. If you win the challenge, you may win a luxury, but, if you lose you shall get punished. You shall also get punished if you break one of the following rules:

Leaving your room without permission

Talking to someone without permission

Use of unauthorized devices.

You shall get picked up everyday for your challenge and fed twice a day. On Sundays, you get a day off. Also, one meal is to be eaten in the food hall with everyone else on this day. That is all you need to know.

The Puppet Master.'

"What challenges?" Raito thought "What is this game?"

L stood in his cell. His letter had been read and tossed on the floor. He was just about to pull out his cell phone again when he started to feel funny. All of a sudden the panda-eyed man fell to the floor.

The raven haired man woke up. "I really hate getting drugged." He thought. Holding his head, he got up, realising that he wasn't in a cell anymore. L sighed. Looking around, he saw he was outside, on a familiar street. Small, white snowflakes dances down from the sky, the sky shrouded with grey. The young detective watched as his breath appeared in front of him, only to fade away seconds later. Something about this scene seemed so familiar. Looking up, L saw something he recognized, something he hadn't seen in years. Across the street was a grand building, with a steeple, guarded by a metal fence, slightly taller than L himself; there was a metal gate in the fence with a plaque by it. It read:

'The Wammy House'

Shocked, all L could do was stare, stare at his childhood; Memories were flooding back, both good and bad. L closed his eyes and tried to clear his head. When he opened them again, he saw to people standing outside wammys house. There was an older man with grey hair; he was holding the hand of a small, raven haired boy. As the snow gently fell, the man squeezed tightly on the young boys hand, as if to comfort him, but, all of a sudden, the man let go. L watched as the man walked away from the him, the young boy with the lost expression on his face. The man ignored the boy, despite how much he called. Tears slid down the little boys face as he called out

"Come back! Please come back! I'm scared of being alone! I'm scared that daddy will come back to hurt me."

Still, the man walked on.

L just couldn't stand there and watch anymore, as the little boy started to cry. He chased after Watari, calling his name, but to no avail. Watari ignored him. L ran and stood in front of Watari, only for Watari to walk straight through him. L was invisible, just a shadow, non-existent. L started to run after Watari again, only to trip into the road. The distance between L and the car, which suddenly emerged from the mist, got smaller and smaller until they made contact.

"I wonder if L has called Watari again." Raito thought. It was boring all by yourself in a small cell. He had been thinking of ways to escape, but he didn't know the building well enough to make any real plans. He had also been looking around his cell, not that there was much to look at. He had noticed the doors were sound proof and had a small slot, at eye level, which could be opened if the guards needed to look inside. It was wasn't accessible from the inside, and the locks were good ones, too. Escape was almost impossible.

Panting and flustered, L woke up. He was hot and sticky with sweat; his heart was racing. He looked around to comfirm, he was back in his cell, and it was just a nightmare. He tried to calm himself down and control his breathing before thinking. Slowly, L glanced down at the floor, to see a tranquilizer dart, lying beside him. Next to it was a note. It read:

'Lawliet,  
Since its your 'day off' we will let you of for this, but don't brake anymore rules.  
The Puppet Master.'

L sighed.

He had no method of communication, no idea of the time and no means of escape. On top of this, 'The puppet master' was controlling him and he was having strange nightmares. This wasn't going well, but, he was going to find a way out!

A/N: L is optimistic. Raito is clueless. You are about to review (hopefully). Don't ask me why I ended the nightmare with a car crash, I just had to for some reason even I don't know.

-LFTD


	3. Chapter 2

"Damn it!" The cloaked man yelled as he slammed his fists onto the table, making one of the men in the room flinch.

"How could this happen?"

One of the five men bravely stepped forward. He was a young man, in his late twenties, with short black hair; like the others, he was wearing a blue suit.

"It's not as bad as it seems, sir."

"He has given away our location, what are we meant too do now? We can't just ship everyone of to a new island."

The other four admired there co-worker, Darren, for being brave enough to stand up to there boss, when he was screaming across the room.

"But, it doesn't matter if we're discovered because we're untouchable."

The puppet master, fists still on the table, suddenly smirked. His expression changed immediately.

"Untouchable, you say? Care to elaborate."

"The police can't come near you, because you have so many hostages. Kira can't kill you, your identity is hidden."

"Go on."

"You have a solid defence, and if you make the right moves, you could also attack..."

"Attack?"

"Yes. It would be simple to use the hostages to bribe the police, but, you could make a deal with kira. We have something he wants; we could say that we will let him use it, if he kills for us."

"Or..."

The puppet master stood up, still slouched slightly.

"...We could gain Kiras trust, steal his power and kill him."

"W..what if its impossible to steal his power?" One of the other men, a blonde haired man in his thirties, spoke up.

"Gerald, the second Kira said it was possible. If they were lying, keep kira alive as our tool." Darren replied.

The puppet master straightened up.

"Stay Sharp, men; it's our new arrivals first day."

Everyone nodded and left quickly.

_**October 4th 2004**_

L stifled a yawn. It was surprisingly hard to stay awake without sugar or caffeine; even so, he couldn't fall a sleep. He couldn't trust the people here. Also, he didn't want another nightmare. He hadn't had a nightmare for years and even then, they were never like that. What brought it on?

Raito woke up.

"It's so strange." He thought.

"I swear I recognize him. His voice, it's so familiar. Maybe I'm just thinking too much."

He shifted in his 'bed'.

"I wonder ... what's going to happen. Maybe, we can escape."

A sigh escaped Raitos lips.

"Maybe" he spoke aloud.

A loud bang on the door startled L. Suddenly, the giant metal door opened, a man standing on the other side. The man was big and muscle bound. He was wearing a sleeve-less vest, dark blue jeans and was bald.

"Come on then."

The man spoke English. He had a gruff voice and it didn't seem like he was in a good mood. Even so, L simply stayed sat on his bed.

"You deaf? I said come on!"

"No."

"Look, I'm gunna pretend I didn't hear that. Come on, now."

It was easy to tell this guy was getting angry.

"No."

"You better get your ass down here before I drag you there!" The man yelled.

"No." L said, calm.

The angry man stomped up to L.

"You think your clever or something?" The man raged.

L could have answered several different things, but decided not to.

All of a sudden, the man lunged a fist at L, but he predicted this behaviour and managed to dodge it. L kicked the now off-balance man, knocking him over. Noticing the chance, L ran out the cell.

"Stop him!" The man called, getting to his feet.

L found guards blocking his path. He tried to fight, but something struck him from behind, causing him to black out.

Raito looked up as he heard the door of his cell creak open.

"Greetings." The young man who opened said door spoke, in Japanese.

"I shall be escorting you to your challenge. You may call me Darren."

Raito surveyed Darren and smiled inside. He didn't look that strong and Raito thought he could easily over power him, though he didn't let his expression show his confidence

silently, the two were soon walking in the hallway. It was like this for a few minutes. Raito thought it was about time to try to escape, until Darren spoke up.

"I'm armed, you know." He said, casually.

"Armed?"

"Yes, its only a pistol, but I'm quite skilful with a gun."

"Is that so." Raito thought.  
"I guess I'll have to think up another plan."

Five minutes later, they stopped at the wood door from before. Walking in, Darren started to speak.

"This is the food room. It is also the only way out of the cells. The only door hear you will go through is this one." He pointed to a door on the wall on their left. "Escape is impossible, I wouldn't try it."

"You have no reason to try it."

"I meant if I were you."

"But, if you were me, you would think like me. How do you know that, while thinking like me, you wouldn't try to escape."

"I meant, if I were in your situation. Anyway, is that a confession that your going to escape."

"No."

"This guy seems smart" Raito thought. "Some people could get confused by that, but he found out the hidden message straight away."

The two men entered the door to find a hallway, identical to the last one. The more they walked down the hallway, the mote Raito noticed that the doors were spaced further apart. The rooms must have been bigger.

Darren stopped in front of one door and unlocked it.

"He keeps his keys on him every time there is a challenge." Raito observed.

"The first few challenges" Darren explained "will be quite easy. Think of them as tests. They will help us decide what challenges you'll do in the futer. Any questions?"

Raito shook his head and walked in the room once Darren opened it. The last thing Raito heard before the door fully closed was "Let the games begin."

L moaned slightly as his head lolled to the side. After a few minutes, his headache calmed down and he was able to survey his surroundings. It was too dark to see, but a small candle lit up the area around L. He was in a cold, stone room and he was handcuffed to the wall. His ankles were also bound, restricting his movement greatly.

"Ready to play~?" A voice cooed in the distance, causing the raven haired detective to jump.

"W..who are you? The Puppet Master?" L replied, trying to keep his monotone voice, but shivering from the cold.

"No, Lawli, I'm not Puppet."  
Beyond called, stepping into the light "I'm much worse."


	4. Chapter 3

Raito walked into the dull room, his footsteps echoing on the metal floor. The walls were grey concrete, with small lights hanging from the ceiling. As he walked further forward, he heard the cry of a small child. Worried for this unseen childs safety, the brunette raced towards the sound of the cry. After a few minutes of running, he did find a small boy with short brown hair. The little boy, no older than 9, let out another pained cry.

"What is it, are you okay?" Raito asked in calm, reassuring voice; the little brunette pointed to his leg and then started crying.

"It's okay." Raito cooed, trying to calm the boy, but then he noticed a gash on the small childs leg. "It's okay." Raito repeated, trying to get the attention of the boy. "Can you tell me how you hurt your leg?" Raito tried to speak to the boy, but with no avail. He kept crying. Desperate to try and help the boy, Raito searched around, until a small, blue backpack caught his attention. He opened the bag and found some that could be helpful. He walked up to the boy and tried to speak to him again.

"Hello, little boy. Do you like lollypops?"

The little boy looked at Raito, calmer, but still crying.

"If you tell me how you cut your leg, we can make it better, and you can have a lollypop."

"T..the m..m..man" The little boy sobbed.

"What man?"

"T…the man who t..took m..m..me."

"Took you?" Raito started to clean and bandage the boys cut, using a first aid kit in the back pack.

"H..he took me, he s..said we were going somewhere nice, but he took me here. I t..tripped and hurt my leg." The little boy stopped crying, but held onto Raito, burying his head in the older mans shirt. Raito held the boy, comfortingly.

"Are you okay, did he do anything to you?" Raito asked, sifting around in the bag.

"No." The small boy replied, emerging from the soft fabric, looking calmer.

"Your really brave." Raito smiled, offering the small child a coke flavoured lollypop.

The younger male took it, and started to suck.

"I'm Thomas." He said, voice muffled by the sweet in his mouth.

Raito stood up, holding Thomas's hand. He suddenly swivelled round, towards the sound of jeering and the sight of shadows in the distance.

The raven haired man smiled a cheshire grin at the site of L, trying to cover up and disguise shock.

"How do you know my name?" L asked in a stern voice.

The other man let out a laugh, making the one on the floor flinch.

"Now, now, it will be less fun if I told you that."

"I'm guessing you're the one who told the puppet master my name."

"Well, aren't you a sharp one. Shame, really. If you weren't a murderer…"

"I'm not the murderer, you are." L interrupted.

There was a second of silence, a second where back orbs met deep, blood red ones. Then B got out a knife and started playing with it.

"So, L, great detective, what makes you think I murdered those criminals." His tone was mocking, laced with anger and hate.

"It's because you were trying to beat me, to surpass me. You have turned into a psychopath, thinking murder was the way too…"

"Wrong" Now it was L's turn to be interrupted. "I expected better from you." Beyond spat his word out, anger bubbling up inside of him, becoming harder to control. "I hid it, for A."

"A?"

"Yes. You killed A."

"A's death was a tragedy, but I had no involvement in it."

"You lying basterd!" Beyond was shouting now, unable to keep control "You killed him, you are the true murderer." The angered man toward over the other, clutching the knife in his hand. "I wanted to be the one case you couldn't solve! To show you someone else is better! Everything I did, it was all things all criminals needed to do! I wanted to show you L was after Beyond Birthday!" The raging man paused, shaking; his breath was ragged. "I wanted to avenge A." Beyond stated quietly, his voice traced with venom.

Suddenly, B lunged forward at L, blade at the ready. If L hadn't shifted out the way at the last second, and if Beyond wasn't so shaky and off balance from uncontrollable anger, he could of landed a fatal blow. Luckily, L was alright. B had fell on the floor; although his breathing was still rough, he had a blank expression on his face. Beyond controlled his breathing and got up, a murderous glint in his eye. He smiled:

"Next time you wont be so lucky.".

The small child hid behind Raito, squeezing his hand, lolly still in his mouth. Out of the shadows came two big, muscle bound men.

"Hey, this guy's got out kid!" One jeered. The other simply sneered in reply.

"Go on then, give 'im too us."

"N..no" Raito replied.

"What if we try bein' friendly? I'm Guss."

"Derrick" The other one grunted.

"Now, give me 'n' Derrick the kid, and we'll leave you be."

"No, he's scared of you."

"Listen, Here is some friendly advice." Derrick spoke, getting closer to Raito, backing him up against a wall. "Don't try and play hero, or you're gunna get yourself hurt, got it."

"G..go away" Raito replied, slightly nervous.

"This guy is so stupid. If you know what's good for ya', give 'im back" Guss warned, slowly lifting his fist in the Air.

"No." Was all Raito said, as he braced himself for a fight.

Suddenly he heard footsteps from round the corner. All four heads turned towards the origin of the sound… Darren.

"Well, Raito, you looked after the child in need, and then protected it. Looks like you have passed; we also have important information on you. Congratulations on surviving your first challenge, Its surprising how many fail. I shall take you back to your room, and also Thomas."

Beyond crouched down by L, blade poised and at the ready.

"Do you know how many innocent people you've hurt?" Beyond asked, barley a whisper. L tried to move, but his constraints made movement extremely limited.

"So many innocent lives, destroyed by you." The knife moved closer to L, resting on the upper arm of his shirt.

"There's A." The knife pressed onto the shirt, cutting it and piercing the skin. Little droplets of blood stained said shirt.

"There's B" The knife was slowly dragged across the skin, ripping the shirt. L closed his eyes tight.

"There's Naomi Misora." B smiled at the small grunt of pain that was heard, and the second cut was made.

"And we cant forget the 12 FBI agents." Three more incisions were made until a strained voice said quietly:

"Stop."

Beyond couldn't hold back his grin. Having his enemy at his mercy.

"Why, Lawliet, you didn't stop when you hurt those people?" The top of the left arm on his shirt was bloodstained, and his eyes shut tightly from the pain. B smiled in satisfaction.

" I hope puppet lets us play again." B called on his way out, licking the blood of the knife, as if it was strawberry jam."

"Wait." B heard a call from behind. "How come your still alive?"

"Like I said, some things will be less fun if I tell." Beyond trailed off, as he walked back into the shadows.

Disclaimer- Disclaimers for this and all chapters is on the summary.

A/N: A new chapter! Now I have pointed out the obvious, I would like to apologise for forgetting my A/N last chapter. Also, thank you all who read and review. Further more, I have had an idea. I shall hold a contest. I already know what The Puppet Master is going to look like, but I want to see your ideas. If you're interested, please draw what you think Puppet looks like under his cloaked outfit. Then send it, with your screen name, to tililhotmail .co .uk. On April 20th, I shall announce the winner. Winner will get their picture as my profile pic, and also, they get to read my next 4 chapters 5 days before anyone else. Get drawing!

-LFTD


	5. Chapter 4

The old inventor typed away at the computer. He had been working non-stop after that phone call from L. He remembers when he first met the detective; no one would have even thought that he would be who he is today.

It was a cold November evening, the sky was grey and the night was dark; the glow of shops lined the streets of the Wammy was doing some Christmas shopping when he saw the small boy. The raven haired boy raced past the older one, two police officers on his tail. The small child, terrified, sprinted into an ally way, leaving the inventor curious what the boy had done and why he was so scared. He walked towards the ally way out of curiosity. It turns out the small child, who couldn't be older than 7, had stolen a lot of things from a food shop.

The officers were asking the boy if he had the money to pay for it.

"I will pay for that."

Three heads swung round, the little boy in shock, as the oldest man their started to pull out his wallet. After Quillish sorted everything out with the officers, he walked over to the little, shaky child.

"Why did you steal?" The older man asked, comforting.

"I..I was hungry."

"Don't your parents feed you."

"I d..don't have p...parents."

"What happened to them?"

The raven haired child shifted uncomfortable. The old man offered a hand saying:

"Come with me."

The child hesitated for a second, before gingerly taking the hand.

Since then, Quillish knew the small boy was special. He took the boy in, the child claiming his name was L. L Lawliet, the strange boy who was surprisingly smart. Quillish brought L to one of his orphanages: The Wammy House. It was large but empty, so most of the inventors attention was on the boy. He looked after and taught him. He was a fast learner, Lawliet. He saw potential in the boy, and didn't want it to go to waste, so he made a promise to im.

"L, you have a gift; I want to nurture it. I will do anything and everything in my power to support your futer career, on one condition."

"What is it?"

"Will you choose a career that contributes to society?"

The now twelve year old boy paused for a second, before slowly nodding his head and smiling.

"I want to be a detective!" He smiled cheerfully.

Quillish was never personally interested in detective work, but he say the way L watched the news, wishing something could be done about the criminals who can't be found, the crimes that can't be solved. The elder man also noticed how much L enjoyed solving puzzles. From that day onwards, Lawliet became L: Worlds best detective. Quillish Wammy became Watari: Ls right-hand man. Watari never told L this, but he cared for the young detective, as if he was the son he never had. That was why he was working so hard to find him; to make sure he was safe. That is also why, when he got that text message from Ls hidden phone, he had a sick feeling deep in the pit of his stomach.

'Watari,  
Make any moves to find us and we kill both the boys.  
Anon.'

_**October 5**__**th**__** 2004**_

L awoke. He had fallen asleep in the dark room, but had no nightmare. He woke up in his cell as a stinging sensation in his arm greeted him. There were crimson stains on his arm and on the bed were he was lying, but he was slightly pleased to see a clean, white shirt, identical to his own, tossed in the corner. After changing he heard a little knock on the door; the door was unlocked and opened to reveal Raito.

"Ryuzaki, turns out today is Sunday."

L stopped for a moment to try and remember the significance of Sunday. The he remembered the letter.

'On Sunday, you shall het a day off. Also, one meal will be eaten in the food hall with everyone else on this day.'

"Yes, we should go." Ryuzaki replied, but as Raito turned around a wave of dizziness washed over L, and he stumbled, catching himself on the wall.

"Are you okay?" Raito asked, turning round.

"Y..yes, I'm fine."

Ryuzaki steadied himself and stood up, wondering why he felt so of balance.

Lots of people were leaving their cells. Some were bruised and beaten, some looked like they were in shell shock and some, Ryuzaki thought he recognized. Ryuzaki started to whisper things to Raito.

"Raito, I recognise some of these people."

"R..really? Who!"

"That man over their, he used to be Eraldo Coil."

"Used to be?"

"I won his title and now I sometimes go by the name Eraldo Coil."

"But, why do you need two titles?"

"I actually have three. Speaking of which, that's Denieve, over there. And it was meant to be a security measure, people who try to find me may contact other detectives for help."

"So, what would this person need with all these great detectives?"

"I … don't know, but at the moment this man is very powerful."

Raito and L made it to the food room. It was packed, with people and food already on the tables. It was tasty food, a variety from cakes, to salads, to even pizza and burgers. Anything was better than the bland rice they had twice a day, two days in a row. L had cake and Raito had a big salad. While eating, Raito and L were talking about the day before.

"So, Raito, what did you do for your challenge?"

"There was a little kid and he was upset, I had to go help him. Did you have the same challenge?"

"…"

"Ryuzaki?"

"…I… didn't do a challenge."

"T..then what did you do instead?"

"…"

The two geniuses were silent for a little while, before Raito asked

"Did you mange to contact Watari?"

"No, my phone was confiscated. They must have cameras in the cells or something."

"Well, at least the task force have our location. Also, we know a little more about our cells."

Both were quiet as they finished their food. After a while, people started sifting, then Raito and L got up to leave. As they were walking out, Raito felt a small tug at his wrist: Darren.

"The Puppet Master requests that you stay behind."

Raito and L, L with a bit of persuasion, stayed behind until everyone had gone. A few moments later, a familiar man, shrouded in black, walked in.

"Well, well, are we enjoying are stay?"

"What is the point in this?" Raito spoke, louder than usual.

"What is the point. What _is_ the point? I'll tell you what the point is." Puppet let out a small chuckle "The point is to take big people, clever people, important people. The point is to stretch them until they brake."

"But that's sick and twisted." Raito scowled.

The puppet master laughed again.

"But _I _ _am_ twisted."

"Why is B here?" L asked, also louder than usual.

"Ha ha, B is here for the same reason Im here."

"Beyond is here… to try to brake people?"

"No. The other reason?"

"What other reason?" Raito questioned.

"Oh, Raito, you have to wait and see. Ha, ha, ha, don't think that you will escape either. We have sent threats."

"W..what threats." L shouted, before quickly calming down.

"Nothing you need to worry about, unless they come looking for you, that is."

With a dark laugh, The Puppet Master turned to leave.

"Welcome to my dark games." He said, exiting.

Darren motioned for both boys to leave, which, they did. As they were walking back to their cells, Raito suddenly asked Ryuzaki a question.

"Ryuzaki, who's B?"

After a short pause, Ryuzaki finally replied:

"Oh, look, my cell is here. I shall see you next week Raito-kun."

Before Raito could reply, Ryuzaki entered the room, and closed the door. Raito sighed and headed for his own room.

A/N: Hello everyone. So, now we have a small idea of puppets motives. I would like to apologise about last chapter, I had no idea that my email didn't show up but that is fixed. In case you cant remember, here is a refresher.

I shall hold a contest. I already know what The Puppet Master is going to look like, but I want to see your ideas. If you're interested, please draw what you think Puppet looks like under his cloaked outfit. Then send it, with your screen name, to tilil hotmail. co. uk On April 20th, I shall announce the winner. Winner will get their picture as my profile pic, and also, they get to read my next 4 chapters 5 days before anyone else. Get drawing!


	6. Chapter 5

_**October 12**__**th**__** 2004**_

It had been a week since L and Raito arrived. They had done challenge after challenge, and were now worn out. It was Sunday again and, once again, Raito met L in his cell. The two were silent as they travelled through the crowds of people. L seemed to notice that nobody was talking to each other, everyone looked on there own. Raito was too busy staring at the floor to notice; he had something on his mind. The geniuses walked into the food room and started to eat what they did before. It wasn't before long when they started to talk about the previous seven days.

"My challenge on Monday, Raito-kun, was the same as yours, but longer."

"Makes sense, Ryuzaki, maybe you had to catch up for what you missed."

"What did you do on Monday?"

There were brain puzzles, I had to solve them in time, or there would have been a consequence, and I would have lost."

"That's what I had to do after saving the child. Did you pass?"

"I have passed all my challenges this week."

"As have I. It could just be me, but they seem like… tests."

"Tests? Now you mention it, they did. Brain tests, bravery, kindness."

"That will explain why we had the same challenges."

"That will also explain why Darren said 'The real games will begin soon.'"

"Ah, yes, I've been wondering about Darren."

"What about him?"

"Well, Darren seems very close to The Puppet Master, so, wouldn't he be doing different jobs. I see some other workers that take people to their challenges, and they seem very low down in this."

"Yes, now that you mention it, that is true. But, I feel like I can trust Darren. Don't get me wrong, I know I can't trust anyone here, especially someone so high up, but, I feel like I've met him before."

"You have … met him before?"

"I don't know. I'm probably just being silly. Anyway, how did you find Tuesdays challenge."

"The physical challenges? Very tiring, it made the rest of the week harder."

"I know what you mean. We made it through, and we get a brake today."

"I think challenges are the least of our problems."

"Hm? What do you mean, Ryuzaki?"

Ryuzaki lowered his tone as he spoke to Raito. "I'm talking about escape."

"Yes, do you have any plans?"

"I do, actually. We have two chances of when we could escape. Sundays, and when we go or come back from our challenges."

"That's fourteen chances, twice everyday."

"Even better. We can meet up and escape then."

"But, the door will probably be locked, we don't know how many armed guards there are and, even if we do escape, you said we were traced to the middle of the ocean."

"All obstacles we can get around, we just need to thing of a way how."

Raito sighed. "Okay, Ryuzaki, lets think of a plan to escape."

"Right. So, Raito-kun…"

"…B..before I forget, I've been meaning to ask, who's B?"

"B? B is … someone from my past, lets just leave it as that."

"But, Ryuzaki!"

"I said leave it, Raito-kun."

"But…"

Before Raito had a chance to protest, people started to leave the hall. There were guards coming and the two boys thought it would be best to leave as well. They were, again, silent on the way back to there cells; there cells didn't seem as bad after a week, but still small and unsanitary. They said their goodbyes and left, L plotting escape, Raito curious about B, both, completely oblivious of the conversation going on between The Puppet master and Beyond.

"So, Beyond, do we have a deal?"

"I think we do, Puppet, I think we do. I think its amazing how much we have in common."

"Both have someone to avenge. Now, I can reach my goal him, and also gain power at the same time."

"I get out of prison, hospitality were I don't have to hide, a guarantee I won't be killed by kira, and a new toy! I think it is a more than fair deal in trade for my services."

"So, you say you can find who kira is?"

"If I have a picture, I can tell if that person is kira or not."

"Excellent, start the search tomorrow, you can rest to night. Darren, how are the preparations coming along."

"Good. We are on schedule."

B left for his own room, a luxurious room that looked like a hotel suit. Darren sighed as he walked up to The Puppet Master.

"I'm proud of you, little brother. It doesn't seem that long ago you and I were fighting over little things, now you're here."

"Ha, ha, yes. I couldn't have done it without you, though. You deserve as much credit as I, maybe even more."

The Puppet Masters laugh was different. It was much softer. It was much more innocent.

"No, little brother. You have earned this. You deserve it." Darren paused then. "Father would have been proud of you." Darren sounded sadder now.

"No, father would have been proud of us."

Even The Puppet Master sounded upset now. His usually strong, confident voice sounded broken down and hollow, like he was reliving a haunting memory.

"Ha, ha, no point in us becoming miserable about past events." Darren weakly spoke. "We should be looking forward to the future."

"Yes, your right. It will be our time soon."

With that, Darren left, Leaving The Puppet Master alone with his thoughts and memories.

_**October 3**__**rd**__** 2004**_

Soichiro Yagami was surprised when he didn't find Ryuzaki or his son in the investigation room that day. He was even more surprised when Watari called him to talk in privet. The next thing he heard was a parents worst nightmare. He was shocked to hear that Ryuzaki and Raito had gone missing. In the middle of their conversation, Watari got a call on his phone. He answered it immediately and then mouthed to Yagami-san "Its Ryuzaki."

Soichiro stayed silent throughout the entire conversation, even as Watari traced the call and said were it was coming from. When Watari hung up, Soichiro asked what Ryuzaki had said, if they were safe. Watari had confirmed their safety but also mentioned that the call cut off suddenly. Watari promised to do everything he could to find the boys and Yagami-san insisted that he helped. The two men told Matsuda and Mogi what was going on, but only told Misa that they had left for a while to work on the case. After being upset about how Ryuzaki had stolen her Raito, Matsuda managed to calm her down.

Then the next day they got a text of a stranger, which came from Ryuzakis phone. There were arguments that day. If they continued to search, both boys could be killed; if they don't look for the boys, they would never be found. Who knows what could happen to them. Everyone was tired and confused, and a oblivious Misa moaning about how much she missed 'her light' didn't help either. No one knew what to do; the task force was a mess and there search for Kira had slowed tremendously. They almost missed the clue that yotsuba was trying to contact Eraldo Coil. After Watari confirmed that L was Coil, Watari and Yagami-san went back to discussing about trying to find the boys, Mogi went back to researching yotsuba and Matsuda was with Misa at this time, so he was informed when he returned. The task force was a mess at the moment.

_**October 16**__**th**__** 2004**_

The phone on his table started ringing. As he looked at the caller ID, all that came up was: UNKNOWN NUMBER: This number could not be displayed. He answered the phone but heard nothing on the other end at first.

"Hello? Hello, who is this?"

"Hello, Kira." Was the reply. "We have a proposal for you."

A/N: So, now we know some more information on plans and motives. I apologise for the all the dialogue at the beginning. I want to do a bit more on how Soichiro is feeling and also about The Puppet Masters motives, but I wont give to much away. It may look like I'm being inconsistent with using L and Ryuzaki, but its not completely random. It depends on who he is with and also, if I am using one too much, I shall use the other so it doesn't get boring. Thank you to all my readers and reviewers, I love your reviews. They motivate me to write quicker. I promise next chapter will be more exiting, and don't forget: Puppet drawing to tilil hotmail. co. uk Thank you for reading!


	7. Chapter 6

**October 13th 2004**

L walked into the dark room, as the door slammed shut behind him; he was used to being submerged in darkness. He walked further into the room, awaiting his challenge. As he walked further, he heard a familiar, eirry laughter.

"Kya, kya, kya, kya-."

L continued to walk forward, trying to ignore the laughter. After a few minutes of the laughter getting louder, black eyes finally met crimson. B smiled his cheshire cat grin, which creped the Hell out of L.

"Greetings, Lawliet. Today, I am your challenge."

"..."

"What's the matter, shocked to see me?"

"...No, just contemplating how easy this challenge will be."

Bs eyes narrowed and his smile dropped at this remark.

"I was going to go easy on you."

His tone of voice was innocent, laced with danger.

"I thought you would struggle, but now, now I won't bother, and if you lose, it will be your own fault."

"I assure you, B, I won't lose."

"Now, tell me Lawli, how have you been sleeping."

L stayed silent for a second, his expression unreadable, but thoughts swimming around in his head. He had barley been sleeping at all and even when he did, nightmares came back. One night he was at task force headquarters again, but he was invisible. Strange people were appearing; the task force couldn't see them either. They couldn't see the people whispering inaudible things in Ls ears. The sound if Bs voice suddenly pulled L from his thoughts and memories of the rest of the dream.

"Think about it L. You know you have lost, thus the nightmares. The only reason you defeated me was because of Naomi Misora. How is Miss Misora, anyway?"

"Missing presumed dead." L mumbled.

"That can't be!" Beyond thought "She isn't meant to be dead yet, unless..."

"Killed by Kira?" B enquired, only to get the reply

"None of your business."

"That's a yes, then." B thought, stepping forward.

"L. Let's see if you can beat me now, or, at least, try to keep up." No sooner had he said those words, B took off, racing down the shadowed corridor.

"A ... race?" L thought, confused, as he ran off after the psychotic mass-murderer.

Darren stood outside Raitos cell. He was thinking to himself about what he thought of this man. No, boy. Not even in his twenties, this person held captive was no more than a child. A small sigh escaped is lips as he remembered something. He felt sorry for him, the one person of the two new recruits that was innocent. No, e felt sorry for everyone. The Puppet Master started all this because of one person. The Puppet Master, though, was twisted by an event that happened years ago. Darren was also affected, just not as much to go this far for petty revenge. Darren helped The Puppet Master for one reason. Before his father left them, Darren promised that he would look after him and his brother; he promised that he would stay strong for both of them and support is brother on whatever he decides to do. Now, Darren was the second most powerful person in the world, next to The Puppet Master himself, but was he happy? He wasn't sure, but he did this every day for his father. "Let the games begin." Darren muttered to himself as he put on a monotone voice and unreadable expression and slowly opened the door.

"Ready?" The older man asked.

"One question first."

"What?"

"Who are you?"

"Who am I? Why, you don't remember? I am Darren, the one who brings you your food. I am also the one that escorts you to your challenges. Let's get going."

Raito grunted in annoyance as he left. He could have fought back, he wanted to, but instinct told him to leave it alone, Darren wouldn't reveal is true identity any time soon.

Usually when Raito was going to and from his challenge, it was silent, bar the occasional passerby; although today was different.

"What's your family like?"

This question caught Raito completely off guard; he was confused why Darren asked such a thing.

"What?"

"You answered my question with another question." Darren pointed out. "I said, what is your family like?"

"M..my family?"

"You did it again."

"Uh, my family is, well, I guess like a family." Raito, surprised by this question, had no idea what to say.

"That doesn't help."

"Yes it does." The brunette protested "Some families don't act like families."

"Go on, Raito."

"Well, some families don't talk, some always argue, some don't even know each over..."

"But your family isn't like that?"

"No, we are very close."

"What about your Father?"

"M..y ... father?"

"What's your relationship with your father. And stop that."

"Well, I respect my father and e cares for me very much. We have been through difficult times as of recent, and he always looks out for me."

"What do you respect him for?"

"H..he is a police officer. Quite a high ranking one at that, he has a very good sense of justice. Also, he cares for is family very much. I respect him because he can do what's right and also what's best for is family."

"I see. That is all I wanted to ask."

"What was that?" Raito thought. "Why did he ask me all those questions. More importantly, why did I answer. He is the enemy, giving away family information so carelessly is defiantly a stupid idea. Actually, he possibility that he has my information already. Then, why did he ask about my family if he could get the information so easily? Maybe he was just trying to verify information. Whatever the cause behind it..."

The hand in front of I'm, stopping him, pulled him from his thoughts.

"We are here."

Raito walked in as Darren opened the door, only to have it slam shut behind him. Though, this wasn't a surprise to him anymore; it was routine now.

Beyond suddenly stopped running after about ten minutes, hiding in a hole in the wall. Luckily, L passed him, but he would realise the absence of the mysterious murderer for long. B had to move quickly. Be quickly left a sticky note on the wall, before sprinting away. A few minutes later, L was retracing his steps, searching for his copy. He found the sticky note fairly quickly, and read it.

'L,

If you are reading this, then I am not with you at this moment in time. Your challenge is the following:

Hide and seek.

Come and find me.

Beyond Birthday.'

After taking a brief second to wonder why a letter was written on a sticky note, he sighed. Hide and seek. This wasn't going to be one of his favourite days.

Raito looked around the barren room. All he could see was a door at the end of the room. After looking around and mulling over is possibilities, he headed for the door. Raito opened the door and was shocked at what he saw; it was exactly like the original, everything was the same, it was a perfect duplicate, like a clone. It was his bedroom. The only difference was all the paper on the walls. On the walls there were newspaper articles of all sorts of things: Various cases his dad had solved; other cases Raito ad been interested in; reports of criminals killed by Kira; other things to do with the Kira case and many other articles that related to him one way or another. Along with the newspaper clippings, there were a lot of pages from magazines relating to Misa Amane. It was creepy how much these people knew about Raito, but not as creepy as what he saw on the wall in front of him. He walked forward and pulled the piece of paper off the wall, reading it while doing so.

'I might be Kira.'

Raito looked at the paper, half in a mixture of shock and disbelief, half in anger. How dare they! These people have not only researched into his personal life, but they broke into his room, gone through his personal possessions, read his diary and taken a page out of it. Why would they do that? Where they trying to provoke emotion? Reaction? What was to gain? Looking up, Raito noticed another door, and walked through it. The door closed behind Raito, the small letters engraved on the back, completely ignored.

'Trip down memory lane.'

'Congratulations! You are that much closer to finding me. This is an easy one. To find the next clue, simply look next to you.'

L looked next to him, both left and right, but saw noting. He looked on the floor and the ceiling, but to no avail. He had been following these clues for a while now, solving puzzle after puzzle in hope of out witting B. An idea suddenly stuck L, as he turned ninety degrees and looked both left and right. Next to him, there were walls. Exploring the walls, the raven aired man saw cracks, one of which had a note in it.

'Today was easy, but next time it will be harder. That, my dear Lawliet, is a promise. You have found me, if you can solve this riddle.

Essential for life, but embraces death,  
For the small, it causes joy,  
Combining elements, this common substances,  
Is often a child's toy.

I expect you to solve it quickly. You have one minute to find me.'

L was thinking about it for about fifth teen seconds, before he figured it out. Mud. Plants need soil to live, people get buried in it, it brings food and shelter for many small animals, it's made from earth and water and children often enjoy playing in the mud. Looking around, L found mud smeared on the wall. He followed the faint trail of mud, until it lead into a small hole in the wall were a certain man, smiling like a cheshire cat, was hiding.

"Looks like you've found me."

"Yes."

"You can go now."

"Good."

L had found and reached the door before he heard voice call from behind him.

"Wait."

He sighed before replying "What?"

"As a prize, you get a special food tonight."

The man by the door nodded before leaving.

A/N: It has been longer than usual. One statement as to why that is: writers block is a bitch. I know what is going to happen in the future, but I need things to happen first. I just don't know what ^_^. This is my longest chapter, so it makes up for it. Sadly, no entries yet for the contest. Please enter, I am curious to see your drawings. (Oh, and to DNfangirl: That is a good idea, I will consider it. Raito thinks that he recognises Darren, but isn't sure. Darren is The Puppet Masters right-hand man and also his older brother.) 'Till next time.

-LFTD


	8. Chapter 7

**October 14****th**** 2004**

L was awake, again. It was easier; the sugar in the cake he ate helped him. Bored, his thoughts drifted back to the dream he had the other night. He remembered being in the task force building. Nobody was paying attention to him, everyone was ignoring him; it was like he wasn't there. He saw other people there too, nobody could see them either. They were minding their own business: walking around; typing on the computers; talking to the task force, who were oblivious to their existence and, every so often, they would walk over to L and speak inaudible things in his ears.

But, no, that wasn't the scary part. The fire. It started with the silent scream of one of the invisible people. After a while, they faded away into nothingness. This alarmed L, him being like the invisible people. After a few minutes, it happened again to another invisible person, then, two more, though there were still many idly walking around, as if nothing was going on. That was, until, visible flames appeared. A small fire, at first, as soon as the last member of the task force had left. It was Raito that was last to leave, talking to no one.

Then the flames grew bigger, as they slowly engulfed the task force. Invisible men fading away, one by one. L tried to open the doors of the building, but to no avail. He tried the stairs, and even the elevator wouldn't open and there was an invisible barrier in front of the stairs.

L had a fear of fire, he hated it. He took up cases of arson or murder caused by fire, for he pitied the victims. The fire consumed more of the room, until only a small area was left, all the invisibly men gone, only L left. L backed into a corner and closed his eyes tight. When he opened then again, the fire was gone, and so was his dream. That was where the dream ended.

Raito wasn't happy. He wasn't happy that someone had gone through his personal belongings, and read his diary and stolen a page. He wasn't happy that they had got information that nobody else, bar his family, knew. He didn't know why. Did they do research on everybody's pasts? Did they do this just to get to him? It wasn't the easiest thing in the world, reliving all of your bad memories; it was a challenge after all. He had passed and for his reward, he was going to be picked up later for his challenge, so he could rest for longer. He couldn't sleep, though. All he could think about was the challenge the day before. Then he kept thinking about his past. His past was okay, some rough parts, but that is normal. He had a loving family, was the top of the class and had plenty of friends. But, when you put all of the bad parts together, and saw it like Raito did, it was scary. Raito looked up as a bang on the door transported him from his thoughts. He was surprised that, when the door opened, it was someone else to escort him.

"H..hello." the man stammered "I..I'm, well, my ... name i..is Gerald."

**October 12th 2004 **

"That is the plan."

"Are you sure it will work, Ryuzaki? It's not the most ... strategic plan."

"Its better than no plan."

Raito sighed. "So, even if one doesn't make it, keep going?"

"Yes. Even if one gets out, they know the inside of the building so it would be easier to get the other one out."

"So, what your saying" Raito thought "Is that if you say this and I mess up somehow, you don't have to come and help me."

"Alright. First time we meet in the corridor."

"Yes."

**October 14th 2004**

L was musing over the fact the person who took him to his challenges wasn't actually very good at fighting. He acts tough, but when it comes to an actual fight, he didn't fight to the best of his abilities; he wasn't armed either. He was weak.

Today, the man, now known as Derick, was running late. Derick told L he would have to make up for it, which hardly seemed fair, but he couldn't do anything about it. They were walking along the corridor until Ryuzaki stopped. Raito, next to him, stopped as well. There was a paused for a second, before both boys, almost simultaneously, kick and punched the men escorting them. As Gerald hit the floor, Raito quickly grabbed his keys and ran with Ryuzaki towards the food hall. Gerald and Derick were dazed for a few seconds, but Derick quickly got up and ran after the boys, Gerald close behind.

The Chase was on.

Raito and Ryuzaki ran through the food hall and met the door they had never gone through before. After a few minutes of fiddling with keys and swearing, the two geniuses got through, slamming it shut behind them. Now, they had lost Derick and Gerald, but more security was bound to come swarming soon. The hallway split into four, but there were signs to tell them where the long hallways lead to. Raito and Ryuzaki ran along the corridor marked: To: BEDROOMS, KITCHENS, LOUNGE, and EXIT.

After a few minutes of running, the hallway split again; There weren't any signs this time. After a bit of arguing, the two saw a group of men come out of one of the two hallways. They decided to take the other hallway. As they ran along the more posh looking hallway, the other men started to catch up to them; they needed to get rid of them, one way or another. It was a risky move, stopping and fighting, but the two geniuses were only outnumbered two to three, so it wasn't that hard. Ryuzaki kicked one of the men in the chin as Raito dodged a punch and delivered one of his own to another man in the face, causing both men to collide into the third one, leaving all three in a dazed heap on the floor. Raito and Ryuzaki sprinted away.

Both men ran along the long corridor, through all the twists and turns; it took a while to navigate their way through The Puppet Masters large establishment. They had to fight a lot, as well, and got it a few times along the way, but they were, only just, making it. They had to fight one pair of men who were particularly persistent. Ryuzaki swung a punch but missed, only knocking the guy on the arm. The man managed to kick Ryuzaki on the side, knocking him down. Meanwhile, Raito dodged a kick from the other guy, but missed, trying to punch him back. He accidentally slammed his fist into the world, and his opponent took this opportunity to grab Raito and hold him against the wall. Raito, quickly, kicked the man in the stomach, getting the man to release is grip and stumble backwards. Ryuzaki managed to kick his opponent in the thigh, knocking him off balance, giving him enough time to get up. Ryuzaki elbowed the other man, knocking him over; then both Raito and Ryuzaki, slightly worn from all the other battles and the running, jogged away.

The two men were running, when all of a sudden, Raito called out:

"Ryuzaki, look!"

The exit was in sight, light was pouring out of the crack in the ajar door, the first natural sunlight the two had seen in over one and a half weeks. Both Ryuzaki were sprinting towards the door, freedom so close, until Ryuzaki felt a rough tug on his shoulder, pulling him back, knocking him over. Raito felt a sharp pain in on his neck, before something caught him on the leg, tripping him up. Everything went black.

A/N: Cliff-hanger ^_^. Hope you enjoyed today's chapter. Please review, and don't forget about the contest. I would love to see your drawings and ideas of what Puppet really looks like.

To: DNfangirl, Thank you for reading. That would be awesome; I would love to see your drawings. ^_^

Good-bye, readers!

-LFTD


	9. Chapter 8

**Warning: L & Raito abuse. It's nothing to bad, but I am just paranoid. **

**October 14th 2004**

When L woke up in the cold, dark room, gagged and bound to the wall, he knew it wasn't going to be a good day. For Raito, however, he had never been in this situation before, and was surprised when he awoke in a strange stone room, hands cuffed and attached to a cold, metal bar, fixed onto the wall.

"Someone's been a naughty little boy" B cooed, "Well, I guess that means more time for us to play. Or did you do this just to see me?"

All L could do was stare at Beyond. He couldn't move, he couldn't defend himself, physically _or_ verbally.

"That was sweet, Lawli." The red eyed man teased "Now, how can I repay you? What about a little present. I am sure you would like some of this."

Beyond brought out a small, square box from behind him, opening the lid to reveal a mouth watering strawberry shortcake. It was cut into six even, small pieces, each with a strawberry onto, dipped in a delicate dollop of cream.

"Do you think Lawliet would like some cake?" B asked no one in particular. "I think he would. Your right, we should share it with him." Beyond looked at L. "Open wide L, so you can have some."

Of course, L had a rope in his mouth, so he couldn't open it, not that he would have risked it, the cake was probably poisoned B took a piece of the cake and pointed it towards L.

"Come on, Lawli, don't you want a piece?"

B took the cake and smushed it against the corner of Ls mouth, before pulling it away.

"I guess Lawli doesn't want cake." B spoke to the invisible person. "More for us, I suppose. But, then again, I prefer jam and you don't really like cake, so no one will have it. Hmm, what was that. You are right, that was a waste. Isn't it a shame, A."

L winced mentally at the name of his first successor, his dead successor. So, that was what B was up to, trying to make L guilty of his past. Guilt was a powerful emotion: It could tear people apart from the inside; cause them to become depressed; but the worst part was that it could follow you round for eternity, and still not give up. It hadn't got to L, but B was trying to brake L, to be better than him; partly as revenge, but to also prove he wasn't the best, to avenge A. L still didn't fully understand what beating him had to do with avenging A, maybe it was because A tried so much to match him and possibly beat him someday, B wanted to prove that L wasn't the best, and could be beaten. One thing L knew about B and A, was that they were close, though they refused to admit it. Though they were good friends, B always had a secret jealousy of A; B envied A. He wanted to be Ls successor, but went A killed himself, B knew it was because of the pressure. B had always felt some guilt, _that_ was why he had to avenge A, one last gift to A, so B could clear his conscience. That's what it was at first, a slightly selfish present to his dead friend. But, when L beat him, it became personal, for it was then that B realized, he was warped. He was warped because of his childhood, the childhood provided by L. He realized it was personal to him. Now, L was chained to a wall, at Bs mercy, and B did it for not only him, not only A, but both of them. He was paying for ruining the lives of both of them. Did he deserve this, was this fair. From Bs point of view, yes. From Ls point of view, no.

Raito stood up. Between the Kira case and The Puppet Master, he was used to his wrists being in chains. Though, before, he could predict what his captor was going to do, and mentally prepare himself for it. This time, he couldn't work out what was going on in The Puppet Masters mind. He was a mystery. The Puppet Master, Darren, they both seemed so familiar to him, but he couldn't remember who they were.

Raitos head shot up at the small _tap _he heard from the far corner of the room. As he moved his wrists, a small jingle emitted from the hand cuffs, behind him. The footsteps got louder and quicker until he was face to face with a man, in his middle forties, about the same size as Raito. He didn't look that strong, or significant in any way. He did, though, have a stern look plastered on his small face, his dark, almost black, eyes burning holes into Raito. He had short black hair, which was neatly cut and petit, round glasses with a small black rim, which lay on his slightly tanned skin.

"I hear you tried to escape."

"Correct."

"That was a mistake, because now you have me to deal with me." This man's voice colder than the stone room.

"What is your name?"

"Don't ask questions."

"Why no-" Raito doubled over as the man punched him in the stomach.

"Because _I _am in charge, not you."

Raito sunk back down to the floor, wincing in pain, but quickly getting over it. The man was stronger than he looked. The black haired man adjusted his glasses as he looked down at the defenceless brunette on the floor.

"Now, do we have a clear understanding of our place?"

Raito paused before nodding slightly. He looked down at the hard, dirty floor, observing at the other mans shiny black shoes as a distraction. The older man knelt down to the brunette's level, placing a hand on the others chin and making Raito look at him.

"Please, pay attention." The man whispered, almost a hiss.

Raito responded by silently staring at the other man's face, his expression emotionless, as to not show a single bit of weakness.

"Now, why did you escape?" The strange man's voice was almost caring, as if talking sympathetically to a small child.

"..."

"Raito, talk to me."

"..."

The man, now irritated, removed his hand from the younger boys chin and slapped him before he could react.

"Don't ignore me-"

"Because, you're a bunch of basterds." Raito spat.

After a pause, the black haired man replied. "Am I getting to you now?"

"No." Raito replied, mentally cursing for showing anger, as he quickly regained his composure and, once again, created an emotionless facade.

"Well, we can't have that, can we?" The older man spoke ice coldly, as he roughly brought Raito up to his feet and pinned him against the wall. "Yagami Raito, I swear, by the day is done; we will have broken down your emotionless front."

"Would you like a drink L?" B smiled an innocent smile, as if he was _actually _trying to be helpful. The raven haired man brought a small thermos from behind him and a small jar of instant coffee. He prepared a small cup of coffee, and offered it to L. L didn't do anything, but tried to move back against the wall.

"Are you sure you don't want it?" B asked, stirring the scolding hot coffee with a small, silver metal tea spoon. "I made it especially for you."

B offered the cup again, but, with the outcome the same as last time, B placed the cup down.

"I'm hurt" He whispered "That I make a cake and drink for you, and you refuse. That is rude, L. You need to learn some manners."

B's arm shot out, placing the silver spoon on L's cheek. L quickly pulled away from the deadly cutlery, hitting his head on the cold, stone wall.

"Come on, Lawliet, behave" B held L's face and placed the spoon on the same spot. Closing his eyes, the helpless raven haired man struggled under B's grip, but to no avail. He let out a small moan of pain and B started to laugh a little. Leaning closer to his new _toy_, the crimson eyed man whispered

"So, L, are you going to be a good little boy from now on?"

After a moment of getting no reply, B pressed the spoon down harder, succeeding in getting another moan of pain out of the other man.

"Answer me, L. Yes or no?"

Still no reply.

B finally pulled the spoon away, and started to gently caress the mark it left. L's eyes were still firmly closed, and the raven haired man still looked like he was in a little bit of pain.

"Come on, L. Won't you even look at me now?"

B suddenly grabbed L's wrist, and pulled at his arm. He grabbed the abandoned cup of coffee and, slowly, poured it down his enemies arm. L bit down onto the rope in his mouth, to stop him from moaning in pain.

"So, L, are you going to answer me now?"

After a small pause, L nodded and B pulled the cup away.

"So, are you going to be a good boy now?"

L nodded quickly and slumped against the wall. B slimed at his victory, before pulling out a small jar of strawberry jam and laughing a little in the face of his enemy.

"Today was fun, L. We should do it again sometime. Kya kya kya!"

The man, now known as F, roughly grabbed Raitos hair and, out of anger, pulled him to his feet. F slammed Raito into the wall. F was getting frustrated. Raito had got angry and spat in the other man's face. He had got annoyed at himself by showing anger, momentarily losing control for just a second, and spitting in the man's face. He was provoked; F kept pestering about his past, about the 'trip down memory lane'. The elder male wiped his face before leaning close and whispering to Raito, his voice laced with venom.

"Don't fucking mess around with me, kid. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into. I can be a very powerful enemy."

"Well," Raito started, regaining his composure and putting on an emotionless front "Chances are we're never going to see each other again, so it doesn't matter what impressions we ma-"

The brunette was greeted with a punch in the gut. He doubled over and F grabbed his shoulder and roughly pulled him up so the two men were face to face.

"Don't try to be smart, kid."

"I don't n..need to try" Raito shot back, only to get punched again.

"Listen, kid, that won't work. The best thing you can do here is swallow your pride, do what you're told and hope you survive. Got that?"

No reply.

"I said, 'Got that?'"

Still, nothing.

"Hey, kid, I asked you a question!" The man slammed Raito into a wall, his head hitting the stone, hard.

"Y..yes."

"Yes, what?"

"Yes s..sir."

The man smiled, before straightening up.

"Now, was that so hard."

The man walked out the door, as Raito slumped down, back onto the floor.

A/N: Sorry. I know it has been a while, so I apologise. I have a deviant art account now, so if you want to see pictures of this story that I draw, journal entries to confirm I'm still alive if I haven't updated in a while (sorry, if that happens) or you just want to be sociable, my pen name is bloodylollypop (lovely name, I know ^_^). Also, fire-assasin on deviant art has made a pic about this story, it's in scraps or it is featured on their profile page (fire-assasin. Deviantart .com /art/Dark-games -204467911


	10. Chapter 9

**15****th**** October 2004**

L had been having these nightmares for a while now, but this was the first time we had woken up screaming. He woke up to the sounds of his screams, echoing throughout the small, dirty cell the young man temporarily called is home. His breath was heavy and ragged as tears streamed down his face, his body hot and sticky with sweat. When the raven man first awoke, his mind was frantic, thought racing around in his head to quickly for him to comprehend.

He eventually calmed himself down, his breath still heavy, but now regular. The detective tried to remember the dream, when something strange about it popped into his head; he could barely remember a thing about it. The only thing he could remember was it was a memory of some sorts. If a memory had that much of an effect on him, why didn't he remember it? Unless, it was such a bad memory that he tried to repress it, but even if that were the case, why had he had a dream of it? It could be because of a recent event that cased the nightmare, but, whatever the case, his past was catching up with him. His past. A past he did not want to relive.

As L's breath returned to normal, the raven haired man wiped the tears from his face. As he was pulling his hands away, L felt something on his face. It was a small, blistered patch of skin, about the size of a tea spoon. Thoughts of the previous day flooded into the detectives head, as he remembered trying to escape with Raito, getting caught and, finally, he remembered B. L Slowly pulled up the arm of his sleeve, causing himself pain and discomfort. All down his arm, it was burn mark. He knew his still painful injury will blister and, eventually, scar. He had seen Beyond, trying to cover up his own scars with makeup. Even so, they were still faintly visible; the burns would stay with him for life.

The brunette sighed as he woke up in his lonely cell. Raito had dozens of bruises all over his body: on his arms and legs; on his stomach and chest and even one under his chin. He did not want to go through that again. That man, somehow, knew how to push all the right buttons to get the teenager angry. Still, Raito had kept himself from getting to angry, barely.

Thoughts drifted away from the previous day and to what today's challenge could involve. But, when those thoughts turned unpleasant, the young brunette started to look forward to Sunday. Sunday was the day when he would get a break from all this. Sunday was the day that allowed him to talk to other people (namely, Ryuzaki). Sunday was the day that stopped him from going mad, and allowed him out of his tiny, enclosed room. Sunday, the day where he could eat something other than rice or, the new item to eat for breakfast, porridge. Normally, Raito quite liked rice and porridge, but on their own, every day, they get very bland and very boring. Though, food aside, Raito had a feeling that Sunday was going to be important. Something big was going to happen, so Raito had to be prepared, even though this was only based on intuition with no evidence behind it, and he had no idea what it would be.

**16****th**** October 2004**

Higuche locked up the high-security room, telling Rem to hide the notebook in the usual place. He walked into his front room, flopped onto the sofa and reached for the TV remote when the phone on his table started ringing. He was too tired and couldn't be bothered to deal with this. First the meeting, then was making judgments, now this. As he looked at the caller ID, all that came up was: UNKNOWN NUMBER: This number could not be displayed. The business man sighed.

"Probably just a prank" He thought to himself as he answered the phone. He thought it was a prank for sure when he heard nothing on the other end.

"Hello? Hello, who is this?" Higuche was about to hang up when he heard a reply.

"Hello, Kira. We have a proposal for you."

Out of all the questions that came to his mind, one stuck out to Higuche more than the rest: how? How did this person know he was Kira.

"What could possible make you think I am Kira? Who is this?"

"I know for a fact that you are Kira. I work for a person, referred to as The Puppet Master. We have a proposal for you that I think works out for both of us."

"Do you have any proof to support your claim that I am Kira."

There was a pause on the other end.

"Well? Answer me."

"No, I do not."

"Well, I am not Kira, so-"

"I have the Shinigami eyes."

"How does this person know about the Shinigami eyes" Higuche thought.

"I have no idea what you're talking abou-"

"With the Shinigami eyes you can see a person's name and lifespan, _but_, you cannot see the lifespan of someone who is Kira."

"..." Higuche was speechless. "H..how could this person have the Shinigami eyes. He must have a notebook." He thought.

"You're a business man, aren't you. Well, then, let's do business. I shall tell you the names of people that you want killed, _if_, you kill for us."

This confused Higuche.

"If you do have the Shinigami eyes..." He started, only to get interrupted by the stranger on the other side of the line.

"So, you're not denying being Kira now."

"If you do have the Shinigami eyes" The business man ignored the question. "Then, shouldn't you have a notebook?"

"No, I was born with the eyes."

"He found me" Higuche thought "So he must be telling the truth, and it's a good deal..."

"Okay, I accept."

"Pleasure doing business with you, Kira."

As quickly as those words were said, the line suddenly went dead.

**14****th**** October 2004**

The Puppet Master was with Darren and Beyond. They were having a meeting about kira when alarms started to go off. Turning on the screens, all three men saw the two prisoners, trying to escape.

"I knew we shouldn't have let Gerald go." Darren mumbled to himself, reaching for the lockdown button, when all of a sudden, The puppet Master stopped him.

"Hold on, this ... could be entertaining."

"Like a game." Beyond chirped, a menacing smile on his face.

Darren smirked at his brother's ability to turn everything into a game.

"Okay then." He smiled, his hand moving away from the lockdown button, towards the many buttons which call the guards. With guards situated at different stations, it was a strategy game and alerting the right ones. Press one too early or too late and they might not be able to catch Raito and L. Darren pressed the first button, watching the 'game' unfold on the camera. The two other men took turns to test Raito and L, Darren happy to sit back and watch. After a while, the exit was in sight for L and Raito. Darren pushed his way to the controls.

"Game over." He said in a dark, menacing voice, as he released the last guards and shut the exit.

**19****th**** October 2004**

It was Sunday. Raito met L, as usual, and the two started to make their way down to the food hall. Their journey was silent as the geniuses slowly walked amongst the crowded corridor. The last time they saw each other was their failed attempt at escaping. They made it to the food hall, sat down and started to eat; Raito was the first to get tired of the awkward silences and speak.

"What was your challenge the other day?"

"Hm. Oh, it wasn't that exiting just puzzles and riddles, things like that. What about you?"

Raito shrugged "The same" He lied. He was being tested by being reminded of his past. The strangest thing about it was, he felt like, no, no, he knew they we're leaving something out, but he couldn't remember what it was. All he remembered was that it was something big that happened to him, in the past.

The two talked and ate until it was time to leave. As they were heading towards the door, somebody stopped them. It was Gerald, looking very nervous. The two geniuses decided to stay behind. After a few minutes, everybody left, except from the three. At that moment, Gerald locked the door, keeping an eye on the other two the whole time. Then, he turned to Raito and L.

"D..do you know why your here?"

The two boys weren't fully sure, but Raito thought he was here because of L and the kira case; L thought he was here because of B and his detective work. Though, before the two had a chance to voice their thoughts, Gerald spoke again.

"Do you know who The Puppet Master is? Why did you escape?"

The raven haired man and the brunette kept silent.

"Well? Why did you escape?"

After a short moment, Raito spoke up.

"Isn't that self explanatory? Why would anyone want to stay as a prisoner? Don't you think that-"

"You're answering questions with questions again, Raito." Darren cut him off, entering the room and stood next to the other wearing exactly the same: blue suit, blue tie, white shirt and black shoes.

"It was always the same, probably a uniform for The Puppet Masters minions." L and Raito thought.

"That habit can get quite annoying you know." Darren finished, before speaking again. "Now, tell us again you two, why did you escape?"

"Because we hate everything about this place." L answered bluntly, in a bored tone.

"That isn't very nice" The Puppet Masters voice echoed through the hollow room, seemingly coming from nowhere. "I give you food and accommodation, but you don't appreciate it. How rude."

Just then, a third man entered the room. His shiny, black shoes echoed across the hard floor. He had a blue suit on, like the others, but _he_ had a black tie, instead of a blue one. His face was shrouded by a black hat, the same black hat The Puppet Master wore. This man stood in front of Gerald and Darren, who were standing straighter than usual, almost as if standing to attention. The man bowed at the waist as he spoke.

"When we met before, it was so ... informal. We should get properly acquainted." The dark and eerily, yet familiar voice spoke out. The man removed his hat with his left hand, reviling black hair. The man stood up straight: he had neatly cut, short black hair; bright, green eyes, which portrayed excitement; a devilish smirk on his face and a faint, yet noticeable scar on his right cheek. The man placed his black hat to his chest and smirked more.

"Greetings, Yagami, Raito and Lawliet, L."

L's eyes widened at the mention of his name in front of the Kira suspect, but still managed to keep his face void of expression. He looked over to Raito, who was staring at the newest person to enter the room, an expression of disbelief on his face. A few seconds dragged by before Raito finally spoke, cutting the tense atmosphere temporarily.

"K...Kiyoshi?"

A/N: I have wanted to publish this chapter for ages. I couldn't because that could make the story too short and it would also ruin the competition. Unfortunately, nobody entered the competition, so nobody can win.

Puppet has revealed himself, and it looks like Raito, finally recognised him. Raito now knows Ls real name. Higuchi accepted the deal with B. Please review and tell me what you thing, I accept compliments and criticism with open arms (but please, no flamers). I shall post a pic of Puppet as my profile pic, soon. When that happens, I shall also post the same pic onto Deviantart.

To: Mary Lou,  
Thank you for reading and reviewing. That is how Raito knows Darren, I hope I didn't leave the update too long, but I had to wait for the 20th.

Thanks for reading. ^_^


	11. Chapter 10

A/N: I know I usually put this at the end; there will be a second one. I just want to say now I apologies for leaving this so long. Blame it on school and other annoying aspects of life. Thank you for my loyal readers for still reading and reviewing, I shall try not to do it again.

Mrs Yagami was preparing dinner when there was a knock at the door. She instantly knew who it was; her fourteen year son had come home earlier, asking if a friend could stay overnight. Even though he never said who exactly this person was, she knew her son well enough to tell. He had many friends, but one friend, he liked more than any of the others. His son's best friend was very smart; the two boys had a healthy competition with each over, Raito coming out on top most of the time. The two were very similar, they had the same interests and they studied together. One reason why they were so close was because they thought the same. They could get into the other ones head; they always knew what the other wanted, what was wrong and what made them so happy. It was almost like they could read minds. Everyone knew they were close.

"Good evening Kiyoshi." Mrs Yagami greeted, as the dark haired boy entered, both slightly bowing at the other one.  
"Thank you for letting me stay, Mrs Yagami."  
"It's no trouble at all." The elder woman smiled. She had always thought that Kiyoshi was such a polite, cheerful boy.  
"Kiyoshi!" Raito called from up the stairs.  
"Hi, Raito. I've thought up some new games" Kiyoshi replied, running up the stairs to greet his friend.  
"He is such a creative boy, always making up new games." Mrs Yagami thought as she went back to cooking.

19th October 2004  
The Puppet master chuckled. "So, you do remember me after all."  
"What about me?" Darren questioned.  
"Yes." Raito replied a thoughtful look on his face as he put his hand on his chin. "Harding. Kiyoshi and Darren Harding. You two are brothers. Darren was raised in England until he was five, when his family moved to Japan. Kiyoshi was raised in Japan his whole life, but has visited the UK on holiday, mainly to see family. I remember know."  
The Puppet Masters smile dropped and his expression went deadly serious. "Do you remember everything?" He said in a dark tone. After a pause, The Puppet Master spoke again. "Do you remember everything?" He repeated "Even the insurance fraud murder case."  
Raitos eyes widened slightly at the memory. "Is that what all this is about?"  
"You speak of it like it was a little event. You must think of it as such, for if you didn't you wouldn't have forgotten it."  
"It was ages ago..."  
"That's no excuse for forgetting something like that." Darren spoke up, standing forward so he was next to The Puppet Master. "The day that you ruined our lives."  
"I didn't. He did."  
There was silence in the room, the atmosphere tense and heavy. No one dared to breath, let alone talk. Well, accept for L, that is.  
"What was the insurance fraud murder case?" It was a few moments more until he got an answer.  
"I used to help my father solve some cases, as you know." Raito finally spoke up. "I solved the insurance fraud murder case, with help from Kiyoshi. It turned out that..."  
"The one behind it was my Father." There was another small, awkward silence, briefly broken by the sound of pattering footsteps as George fled the room.  
"So, what happened" L started to sum up "was that You two were working on a case together, and it turned out, that your father was the one behind it. But, this was your fathers fault if he went to jail. Also all you had to suffer is no father for a while."  
"It's not that simple." Darren explained. "When Kiyoshi was four and I was ten, our mother died. Our Father did a good job of raising us on his own, but we went into debt. No fault of ours, we were scammed. After that, our father moved to England for a while."  
"That was when the insurance fraud murder case started." The Puppet Master continued. "I was friends with Raito at the time, so we both started to work on the case together. I was oblivious to the culprit when the case started, but then I found out. It had turned out that father had secretly moved back to Japan. I tried to stop Raito from finding out the truth, but failed. He solved the case in the end."  
"Wait, you knew?" Raito questioned.  
"It doesn't matter." The Puppet Master shot back "You still got my father arrested and left me and Darren without parents."  
"And if that wasn't bad enough, he was murdered by Kira."  
"I didn't do anything wrong!" Raito defended "I did the right thing and called the police, people were getting killed. Anyway, why didn't you go to one of your relatives?"  
"We were young and we were scared. All our relatives were in completely different countries." Darren pointed out. "We weren't thinking straight, we can hardly be blamed."  
"But, one day when we went to our old house to pick up some things." The Puppet Master explained "We found the stash of money father had left for us, just before he went to England. We used that to find this island and build this. It took us three and a half years to get to where we are now. I guess we should thank you." The dark haired man smirked evilly. "If you didn't ruin our lives, we would have never gotten to where we are now..." He put his hat back on and held the tip of it so it just about covered his left eye.  
"Well, till next time. Yagami, Lawliet." The two men left, The Puppet Master smirking, Darren looking like the floor just insulted him. The door slammed shut and locked behind the two men, leaving L and Raito in silence.

The raven haired, red eyed man stared at the computer screen. He still hadn't told The Puppet Master that Raito was, in fact, Kira. The reason he knew about the Shinigami eyes showing you kira's identity was that when he hack Ls computer, the suspect's life span couldn't be seen. At first, he was confused, but when the suspect for the second kira was the same, he was smart enough to work out how it works. Beyond always wondered what The Puppet master would do if he found out that Raito killed his father. The young man closed the picture of Raito as he heard footsteps.  
"How did it go, Puppet?"  
"It went quite well. You should have seen the look on Raitos face when he found out it was me. L looked shocked as well, when I said his name."  
"You have almost won, Kiyoshi." Darren spoke up "You have captured your enemy, you have the world's greatest detective as well and you almost have control over the world. All you need to do is kill kira, after stealing his power of course; then you can make yourself known and control the world. Also, you need to break Raito, as your revenge. Then you have won."  
"Far from it, dear brother. These are the times people fail for they let their guard down. I have a feeling that something is going to happen, so we must be prepared. Anyway, you speak as if it were all me. I couldn't have done it without you. You too, Beyond."  
"Thank you, Puppet~!"  
Darren simply smiled. It was good to see his brother happy. After what happened four years ago, it was good that they both turned out successful. Little did he know what was soon to come.

Raito was in his room, contemplating the day's events. He remembered seeing Ryuzaki today, the obvious burn mark on his face; Raito also noticed that the older man saw the marks the brunette obtained yesterday, although, there were worse things to worry about than yesterdays 'punishment'.

Kiyoshi. Kiyoshi Harding. Also know as: Puppet. His old best friend was The Puppet Master. Raito remembered everything so clearly now, when he lost his best friend at the age of fourteen. He had constantly been either angry at himself or grieving over the loss of their friendship. People tried to make him forget, but, he just couldn't let go. It wasn't until one day he realised how much it was affecting him and the people around him, so he just forgot. It wasn't until now that he remembered what happened. He felt guilty for being the cause of all this distress; if it wasn't for Raito, The Puppet Master wouldn't exist. There would just be Kiyoshi. Raito sometimes contradicted himself as to whether he really did do the right thing all those years ago. Maybe, letting one murder roam free would have stopped all this madness. Kiyoshis father could have always been found out by someone else; Raito would be the good friend that would comfort Kiyoshi and they would be closer friends than before. How much better that would have been. It was too late now, though. Too late to think about what Raito could have done. Too late to worry about long term effects. Too late to prevent The Puppet Master from taking over the world. Raito stopped thinking for a second, before realizing something. Even though it was too late to prevent The Puppet Masters existence, it wasn't too late to stop him; there was still hope. Raito and L could still take action against him, whether it was by escaping and getting him arrested that way or defeating him face-to-face. The only problem was, when the time comes, can Raito bring himself to hurt his old friend for the second time?

A/N: When I look back, the previous chapters, including this one, was setting up for the rest of the story. A lot of secrets have been revealed and it basically starts here.

To Mary-Lou: thanks for reviewing. Raito knows Darren through Kiyoshi/Puppet. I shall try my hardest to get an image soon, but there is a slight problem. Also, I am glad you think he is sexy ;-)

One last note to everyone: I know I promised a picture of Kiyoshi, but there seems to be a problem transferring Puppet from my line onto paper. I have known for a while what he looks like but whenever I try to draw him it goes wrong. I shall keep trying.

-LFTD


End file.
